Between the Borderlands, the Call of Duties, and the FarmVilles of the world, it’s difficult for any studio to try and get some exposure for its games, let alone indie developers who lack the sort of marketing muscle (and dollars) needed to compete for people’s attention.
So we’re here to help: A few weeks ago, we asked these small studios to “Pitch us in one Tweet.” With no extra linking allowed, these developers had to use the 140-character limit wisely. But we received so many fun and creative Tweets that we just didn’t have the manpower to narrow everything down to a reasonable number … so naturally, we sent these pitches off to fend for themselves on a dangerous island inhabited by foul-mouthed fanboys and greedy publishers. Only 10 of them survived.
Here are the details for our #2 pick.
The game: Colour Bind
Availability: PC, Mac, Linux
The pitch: @colourbind: “In space gravity binds to colour, not mass. Mix colours, jump galaxies, ride ceilings, do wheelies, solve puzzles!”
Why I picked this: I love space. I love wheelies. And the Tweet sounded confident that Colour Bind could really pull all of that off. Plus, look at all of those verbs. Mixing! Jumping! Riding! Solving! That’s a whole lot of action for a puzzle game.
What is it? All you have to do in Colour Bind is to get your two-wheeled vehicle from point A to point B. But a pesky little thing called gravity (with different directions represented by different primary colors) is in the way, and you have to get through it with a clever manipulation of switches and lasers. As you can see in the gallery below, levels can induce panic with their odd shapes and sizes, but all of them are solvable with some good ol’ logic. You can play either alone, with a friend in co-op, or even make your own hair-pulling puzzles with the included level editor. Not a bad package from its one-man developer, Finn Morgan.
Is it good? Yes. I don’t have much patience for puzzlers. If I’m stumped, I’m more likely to quit and look up the solution online than I am to stick through it. But I find that the games that do manage to hook me do a good job of easing me into their mechanics before letting me experiment with the crazy rules governing their worlds. Colour Bind does this really well, and even though I failed multiple times, I kept playing with a “just one more try” mentality.
Look for it: On Steam, Amazon, Green Man Gaming, Desura, and its official website right now with Mac and Linux ports coming at a later date.
For more info: http://www.colourbind.com/
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Check back tomorrow for the #1 finalist in our “Pitch us in one Tweet” contest. You can follow this tag link to catch all of the top 10.